Speaker:

Chris M.Anson, North Carolina State University

Using Writing in Large( r) Classes: Burden-Free Strategies

Thursday, 9/19, 2pm * McCune Room, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center

Dr. Chris M. Anson, Distinguished Professor and Director of Writing and Speaking Across the Curriculum, North Carolina State University

Most faculty believe in a simple ratio: the larger the class, the less possible it is to assign writing, even with the help of teaching assistants. Under this assumption, writing belongs in small seminars, senior capstones, and other courses enrolling a limited number of students. In larger classes, especially very large lectures, assigning writing yields an unbearable paper load that threatens the time we need both for our professional and personal lives.

 But it doesn’t have to be this way. By limiting students’ writing experiences to small, intimate courses, we deny them important occasions to learn their course material more fully and practice expressing their knowledge and ideas. In this workshop, we’ll explore ways to incorporate not just a little but a lot of writing in courses with 40, 50, 75, even several hundred students, yet not overburden us in our teaching responsibilities.